Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A ride to remember

The ride home from Mexico was a bit of a doozy. It all started out with me being sick, which caused us to decide on coming home a day early.

We went to the store to replace some of the items we had used in the house, and I decided to pick up some alka-seltzer to help with my nose and cough for the drive up.

All seemed to be going well. We cleaned and locked up the house and began the drive north. About 15 minutes in though something began to go wrong. My chest and back began to ache. It was an ache I had experienced before, and I quickly asked DaNece to read through the ingredients of the alka seltzer. Eventually she got to Aspirin. Uh oh. Figuring that I had taken this stuff before without adverse effect I hadn't looked at the ingredients before consumption. Stupid, stupid me.

The thing is, I'm allergic to aspirin. Like, pretty bad.

Apparently sometime this year the company decided to change their formula, and switched a key ingredient. Acetaminophen was changed to aspirin. As soon as she said it, I knew I was in for a very interesting ride home. I pulled over and DaNece took over the captain's chair.

Soon I was in full-blown allergic reaction state.

- Chest pain. Bad enough to make me cry like a baby.

- Severe asthma attack, resulting in difficulty breathing.

- Facial numbness

- A seemingly endless amount of saliva buildup

- Throat swelling which makes swallowing difficult

There is a bright shining spot in all of this though. And that is the entertainment that was provided to DaNece after she stopped worrying if I was going to die. Imagine having to spit out the window every couple seconds.... but your lips are numb.

Gross? Yep.

Funny? She sure thought so.

All of these symptoms stayed severe through the hour-long drive to Sonyata, and through the two hours we spent waiting to get across the border. Finally, by the time we got to Gila Bend everything was starting to ebb to the point where I could eat something.

About 5 hours after the start of the whole menagerie the only thing left was a little bit of chest pain, a great lesson to read the label on everything, and a ride home that we will remember for a very long time.